With problems such as pollution, limited natural resources, and the ever-increasing cost of most materials, more and more people are looking toward recycling as a way of improving the world in which they live. For example, many states have enacted legislation which requires that beverage containers carry a redemption deposit as a technique for encouraging recycling and discouraging littering. In other states, there have been extensive efforts to encourage voluntary recycling of beverage containers, even in the absence of required redemption deposits. As such, there has developed a need for efficient systems whereby beverage containers such as metal cans, plastic bottles, and glass bottles may efficiently be processed.
In the past, recycling centers (e.g., retail stores) have had to utilize personnel to sort and count returned containers so that such containers could be properly compacted, or returned to the proper distributor for redemption. This arrangement also has required devotion of an inordinate proportion of the available floor space to the collection, sorting, counting, compacting and storage of the various types of containers which are recycled. Recycling thus has proven unacceptably expensive. Recycling centers thus have sought an all-in-one recycling machine capable of accepting various types of containers for selected compacting and storage operations. Container redeemers also have sought a recycling machine capable of compacting and storing containers based on the type of container provided. To this end, there has been a flurry of activity in the development of conveniently used recycling machines and techniques for the intake, or reverse vending, of recyclable containers such as bottles and cans.
One particularly useful reverse vending machine is illustrated and described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,653,627, which issued on Mar. 31, 1987 to Hampson et al. That patent discloses a reverse vending machine which provides for the separation, counting and crushing of beverage containers of a predetermined type. The machine is specifically adapted for use in redemption of containers having a known size and having a composition which is similarly known. The invention was improved upon by a machine including a rotary-bristle drive scanning station which aids in accurately identifying containers which are redeemed. That machine is set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 5,273,149, which issued on Dec. 28, 1993 to Aldrich et al. Both of these inventions are commonly owned with the present invention and are incorporated herein by this reference thereto.
Although the aforementioned reverse vending machines have proven extremely effective in the recycling of cans, and particularly in the redemption of standard-size beverage cans, such machines have not addressed the more diverse redemption needs of most recycling centers. What is needed is a machine capable of redeeming various size and style containers, all in a single machine. It is therefore an object of the invention to provide an improved recycling machine wherein containers of different character may be reliably identified and compacted for storage in an appropriate storage bin.